Piracy and Roads Ahead

[Guest Sar'vek t'Jhiin]

Although her previous experience barreling the latinum on the ancient and dead world -- and subsequently having a fair amount of it taken away to pay for "repairs" -- should have taught her better, Sar'vek was still taking far too much pleasure in relieving their attackers of their latinum stores. There was just something so satisfying about neatly stacking the bars of gold-pressed latinum -- not to mention the jewelry and other rare items -- on the cart for transport back to Talon. Of course, she knew she was only getting a share of the bounty, but seeing the broken faces of the alien crew as they watched their treasure-stores being drained was half the pleasure.

 

She'd actually felt bad, at first. Once the initial thrill of being on what amounted to a raiding party had dissipated and she'd looked into the eyes of the crew as they related their sad objective -- getting food for a starving world -- she really had. She had felt guilty -- as if the attack on Talon had been a misunderstanding -- and she'd had her doubts on whether or not they really should have been, taking the paucity of goods that remained from the pirates' haul. Sar'vek had even gone so far down that line of thought that she had considered beaming over some excess foodstuffs before the two ships had gone their separate ways, to ease her annoying conscience even though the barbarians hardly deserved it.

 

All of her misgivings, however, evaporated fairly quickly, once the thieving sons of thrais had shown their true colors once more. She wasn't sure what had drawn her ire most strongly: being lied to particularly irritated her, but somewhere also near the top of that list were that they'd tried to kill her -- and that she had been made to look a fool in front of both of Talon's commanders. That thought still made her blood boil. And if there was io thing she liked even less than someone trying to y'ya her, it was someone trying to y'ya her... and having to be rescued. By an N'Dak, no less.

 

So it was with no further guilt that she claimed every last item of value in the name of the Empire, and proceeded to haul each back to the Talon with great joy. Whether or not they were really had been on a humanitarian expedition, Sar'vek took great pleasure in the fact that the aliens would be returning to their leaders defeated and unsuccessful. It would be a long time, she imagined, before those people again decided to pick a fight with the Rihannsu.

 

Almost as much as she looked forward to seeing the final tally of the collected loot, Sar'vek looked forward to getting back back to home, to the twin worlds. And for so many reasons. For one, this quadrant was far more trouble than it was worth (even with the latinum, and Sar'vek acknowledged that the latinum was an exception to the norm of the Gamma Quadrant, not the rule), and as far as she was concerned, the Lloanns'su and their friends were welcome to it. All she wanted to do was get through the damned wormhole -- without incident or interference from the Bajoranns'su "gods", and without the ship tearing to pieces around them in the process.

 

And once they were home... oh, then the fun would begin. She could only imagine the inquisitions that would take place, first into the mutiny, then into the "Repair Station Incident" and "t'Rexan's" subsequent resurrection. The former she wasn't too concerned with -- the evidence was clear on what side she had taken in, and unless t'Rexan planned to drag her through the fire along with tr'N'Dak, t'Aehjae, and most of all t'Temarr, she wasn't particularly worried that she would somehow be unfairly implicated as a mutineer.

 

The latter on the other hand... that was another matter entirely. Sar'vek counted herself lucky that she was not intimately involved with the matter of the Khre'Riov's revival either as a medical officer, as t'Ksa would be, or as a criminal pardoned by a questionably reliable woman, as would t'Temarr. On the flipside, however, she was a relatively neutral party in the whole thing, which left her in a somewhat delicate position if she were called upon to attest to the Khre'Riov's condition...

 

But there was no use worrying about such things until she had to. She had to focus on the positive... like the fact that thanks to the latinum, she would now have enough fiscal resources h'nah to hire the proper attorneys -- and make the proper bribes -- to deal with other, more domestic matters at home... though... the "domestic matters" had assured that "home" was no longer quite the correct term. Her -- or more aptly, now the s'Crahns' -- house was no longer open to her, and until the rest of the matters of her late husband's estate were settled, the rest of her resources (that weren't currently sitting in vats on Talon, anyway) were also debated. But there were always the other pleasures of being on the homeworld. Cooked -- not replicated -- food, good ale, and Rihan, not annoying alien-pirate, men were somewhere near the top of the list, along with the chance to finally publish all of the material she had assembled during the course of their long ride home...

 

If only they could get to home. Surely they had suffered enough at the hands of the Elements for one mission, and there would be no further tests of the will and stamina of a tired -- and cranky -- crew. With any luck, their next assignment would be a border patrol, somewhere far away from this Elements-forsaken part of the galaxy.

[KhreRiovtRex 0]

Wow!! This is excellent!

 

Hann'yyo for sharing it with us